Ionization of excited xenon atoms by electrons

Abstract

Measured cross sections for electron-impact ionization of excited Xe atoms are not presently available. Therefore, we combine in this work the formalisms of the binary encounter approximation and Sommerfeld's quantization of atomic orbits and derive from first-principles cross sections for ionization of excited atoms by electrons of low and moderate energies (up to a few hundred eV). The approach of this work can be used to calculate the cross sections for electron-impact ionization of excited atoms and atomic ions other than xenon.